Race thread: 🇫🇷 Tour de France 2026, last week, July 21-26

Stage 16, Tuesday 21

26 km, D+ 500 m, Individual Time Trial

This ITT presents an unusual profile, with an horrible 4,5% strongly uphill false-flat right from the start which lasts for 10 km (!), then a steeper descent and only finally a flat section.

I watched little of the race. In other times, the horrible flat climb would have caused a few riders to miscalculate their effort by not finding their pace on this bastard slope, but in the days of computerised cycling, it cannot happen.

Therefore there were very few surprises. The profile, a more regular version of the Gavarnie stage finish, looked perfect for Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) and Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE), and so it was. We might have believed Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) to make a difference over Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE), but Sunday's stage was a big warning that one shouldn't be overconfident about that, and in the end there was almost no difference. Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) confirmed as well the more serious troubles he experienced on Sunday. Skelmose (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) may have done a bit better than expected, but he is used to ITT top-10s.

In fact, the only true change in top-10 is caused by Lipowitz🇩🇪's crash (on the flat section) and withdrawal.

Among the 6 contenders for places 9 and 10, Voisard (🇨🇭 Tudor) did the best time. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) probably didn't give a damn, which allowed Piganzoli (🇮🇹 Visma) to gain 2 ranks in order to try to save GC for his team.

Highlights of the race for me:

• mads climbing for those green jersey points... what a madman, i love it.

• Pogi playing domestique for IDT. Those two are so wholesome.

• Carapaz attacks

Disappointments:

• vinge crash
• bini

Stage 18, Thursday 23

186 km, D+ 3900 m

Many climbs, long and short, but never too steep. There is a finish on top, but it might still be good for breakaways if GC guys wait for the 2 harder stages which follow.

NB: the way the profile is drawn makes it look almost flat, but there is almost 4000 m of total elevation to climb, it is really a medium mountain stage.

No clear breakaway managed to form before the top of the first climb, where V. Paret-Peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS) and Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) jumped off the peloton to catch and overtake the small new breakaway which already held 2 EF riders. They passed the summit in that order, and their attack brought the peloton back at the front, with Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) passing this (admittedly overrated) 1^st^ category in ^5th^ position. He doesn't look tired!

Pedersen🇩🇰 managed to get in a breakaway soon after that, and while there were a lot of reconfigurations within breakaways along the stage, succeeded in reaching the Intermediate Sprint ahead today!

One more time, V. Paret-Peintre🇫🇷 won all GPMs before Carapaz🇪🇨 except the final one, even though he was in the final group of 6. This pair previously had to jump from a breakaway to another at some point in order to be able to pass first in climbs. In the end, this effort must have stayed in the French skeleton's legs, but Carapaz🇪🇨 flew in the final climb, after a long period during which the 6 riders were looking at each other. Well, 5 riders, as R. Garcia P. (🇪🇸 Movistar) was struggling to remain with/near the group.

On a very different type of finish, Schmid (🇨🇭 Jayco) beats Jorgenson (🇺🇸 Visma) for 2^nd^ place. Jorgenson has no sprint at all, and Schmid🇨🇭 made 2^nd^ yesterday already, amidst real sprinters; so, there wasn't much of a chance of a different result 😄

The only survivor from the other breakaways, which included a large number of riders, was another Movistar (Castrillo🇪🇸) who barely managed to stay a few seconds ahead of the peloton. The two Movistar riders finishing 6^th^ and 7^th^ bring 100 UCI points to their team.

The peloton did nothing at all.

When the gap with the breakaway went over 8 minutes, Total and Q36.5 started pulling, because Carapaz🇪🇨 was getting a bit too close to Jegat🇫🇷 and Pidcock🇬🇧 (and of course, it was Carapaz, not a sprinter who would have died in the final climb but a climber more or less as good as they are).

No one tried anything at any time, despite seeing how UAE was losing men.

The final climb was a long procession. The peloton was reduced to barely more than top leaders, yet nobody tried anything at any point, not even in the last mile or half-mile.

In spite of the presence of Ze Elect (🇫🇷 Decathlon) on the race, we are getting closer to witnessing a Tour de France without a single French🇫🇷 stage victory.

It would be the first one since '99, I reckon. And in '99, they had an excuse, as all hadn't removed the handcuffs they got in '98 🤣

Before that, the only time it happened is exactly one century ago, in 1926... 😱

Stage 19, Friday 24

128 km, D+ 3600 m

The first Alpe d'Huez stage presents climbs in the beginning and in the end, with smaller and smoother hills in the centre part. It is short. A breakaway might succeed if Pogatchar doesn't want the stage (who else would ride for it after the withdrawals of Vingegaard and Lipowitz?).

Standings before the first Alpe d'Huez stage:

General classification

1. Tadej Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE
2. Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Bora: +4′32″
3. Isaac Del Toro 🇲🇽 UAE +6′51″
4. Paul Seixas 🇫🇷 Decathlon: +7′11″
5. Juan Ayuso 🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek: +9′22″
6. Mattias Skjelmose 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek: +10′14″
7. Lenny Martinez 🇫🇷 Bahrain: +12′50″
8. Thomas Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5: +12′58″
9. Jordan Jegat 🇫🇷 Total : +14′04″
10. Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF: +21′00″

Points classification (Green jersey):

1. Mads Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek: 477 pts (+60)
2. jasper Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin: 445 (+54)
3. Biniam Girmay 🇪🇷 NSN: 361 (0)
4. Max Kanter 🇩🇪 Astana: 271 (0)
5. Olav Kooij 🇳🇱 Decathlon 230 (+20)

Mountain (Polka Dots jersey)

1. Tadej Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE: 70 pts (+3)
2. Valentin Paret-Peintre 🇫🇷 Soudal-QS: 69 (+24)
3. Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF: 63 (+24)
4. Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 Bora: 36 (+5)
5. Paul Seixas 🇫🇷 Decathlon: 34 (0)
6. Isaac Del Toro 🇲🇽 UAE: 30 (0)

In the last mountain stage on Saturday (stage #20), they will be as many points to grab (70) as the Mountain classification leader possesses presently after 18 stages 🙄

Stage 17, Wednesday 22

175 km D+ 2400 m

This stage will probably be disputed between a breakaway which could leave in the small/medium climbs of the first 60 km, and sprinter teams. Perhaps Pedersen will attempt to go into the breakaway.

I won't comment much on this one, as I only carefully watched the first 2 miles, then was hearing fragments from another room, until I sat lay in front of the telly for the last 50 km in order to reconnect properly with race... and slept through a good 45 of them, although a lot of things were happening.

Veistroffer (🇫🇷 Lotto) was a km-0 attacker, but blew up as soon as the first gentle slope started.

Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) was dropped at some point with sprinters. Nobody took advantage of it.

A. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE) got sick or fully depleted his batteries, and was dropped from all groups.

Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) managed to get into the right, big breakaway. As the peloton only came 9 mn behind, that gives him a lot of breathing space to save his final GC rank (top-10: 9^th^ at the moment). He left the territory of those around 25 mn, to get close to the guys ahead of him: L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrain) and Pidcock (🇬🇧 Q36.5), at 13 mn, are now just 1 minute ahead.

Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) was extremely active today. Yet at the end of the day, Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin), who spared no effort either, is now at the same level as him in the fight for the Green jersey.

Zero chance del toro doesn't get p2 with the way UAE have been controlling. Happy for Remco's stage win but that's the end of that surely

Stage 20, Saturday 25

171 km, D+ 5600 m

Another finish at the Alpe d'Huez after 3 Hors-Catégorie climbs for the main and last mountain stage. As the stage also starts from the bottom of the Alpe d'Huez, I fear about the crowd being too important, as it will also be compacted on this reduced version of the climb, and those risks come on top of the race staying 2 days in the same place and this stage being on a week-end.

Mostly another series of confirmations.

I'll start with the main difference: Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) who had lost more and more time on previous stages, decided to take an offensive approach today and join the first breakaway, hoping for a stage victory or a GC rank gain. He also tried a few small attacks from the breakaway but was punished each time by Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) or another of the top breakaway riders. While ultimately he failed at both objectives, he tried well, and at least he didn't lose more time in GC.

Otherwise, it was much like yesterday.

• In the first HC climb, we saw a crazy Green man🇩🇰, dropped by the main peloton, then catching up with it, then attacking from it to attempt to join the breakaway of climbers, and succeeding in joining it after the top, in order to win the I.S. at the bottom! All these efforts he did alone, he didn't have the ton of help from his team he got on previous stages.
• Very good Carapaz🇪🇨 and Kuss (🇺🇸 Visma) again, with Hindley (🇦🇺 ) replacing L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrain) in the final trio.
• Kuss🇺🇸 lost the stage and scared everyone by crashing twice in half a mile while he was leading the race, the second time ending in the last yard of nets over the precipice! Polka dotted Carapaz🇪🇨, who had been hanging between 5 and 20 seconds behind for, what, 30 minutes? benefited of this to close the gap, overtook the American and rode the last climb up to his 2^nd^ victory in 3 stages.
• Carapaz🇪🇨 finishes the week much better than V. Paret-Peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS). The Frenchman put up a fight in the first HC climb, but this time could only finish 2^nd^ as the Ecuadorian rider had chosen a long-range attack today (starting 3 km away from the top); then he blew up as the second climb started, while Carapaz🇪🇨 was in demonic shape.
• Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) lost another stage by trying to help Del Toro🇲🇽, and sticking to that single mission while it was already accomplished. He never changed plan and stayed with him until the end, which was completely useless.
• Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon) has definitely weakened. There again, he and his team stuck to their plan of having teammates (Prodhomme🇫🇷, and then it was supposed to Riccitello🇺🇸 coming down from the breakaway, but the American was as unhelpful as usual) pull the final group for him, in spite of the fact that it was clear, again and again, that Seixas🇫🇷 was suffering more from that pace than the other guys. Ultimately, after his teammate(s) stopped, it was his own turn to pull according to the predefined, not updated, strategy; and the only rider who was dropped as a result of his effort was... himself! He lost almost 2 minutes to L. Martinez🇫🇷 (and Skjelmose🇩🇰) today, somewhat endangering his 4^th^ place in GC.

Behind, Ayuso🇪🇸's presence ahead, with a gap that went over 4 minutes, pushed UAE and Bahrain to pull the peloton.

Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) attacked way too late. He could have attacked in multiple places before, he had ample time for it: in the Sarenne pass (his teammate Hindley🇦🇺 could then have helped him), or anywhere in the bumpy 5 miles transition after; but he waited for the last 2 miles of Alpe d'Huez, and could never see Carapaz🇪🇨's number sign.

He took over the poor Kuss🇺🇸 just before the line, despite having absolutely nothing to gain from it.

Kuss🇺🇸 got the Combative award for the stage, as consolation prize. 👍 He also got penalties of 75 UCI points, 1500 FS and 1 minute for littering!!! 🤣

I thought that Piganzoli🇮🇹 would be today's main card for Visma in the breakaway, but it was Kuss🇺🇸 who had used yesterday as a warm up 🙂. In GC, the American therefore ends up just before the Italian: 13^th^ and 14^th^. The Italian never made it into the top-10 of any stage.

Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) was busy limiting damage today, after losing one GC rank yesterday. He will save his place of 10^th^in GC, exact same as last year.

When the breakaway was reduced to about 10 riders only, there wasn't a single Frenchman in it any more... (I reckon last one was Braz (🇫🇷 FDJ), dropped soon after V. Paret-Peintre🇫🇷, right?)

Only one chance left to avoid the humiliation, and with the level of Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) this month and Alaphilippe (🇫🇷 Tudor) this year, hopes are thin. (Surprisingly, Alaphilippe🇫🇷 stayed with the peloton a long time today.) Who else do we have in stock?

I am not sure how, but in spite of the reduced areas where they were allowed, the crowd wasn't dense today. A good thing, I just don't understand how it happened so, as logically it should have been worse than yesterday in spite of the presence of the Galibier on the way.

Stage 21 (final), Sunday 26

133 km, D+ 1600 m

Last year's experiment is renewed: 4 laps of Champs-Élysées only (7 km) and then 3 longer (16 km) laps including the climb to Montmartre and its somewhat scary downhill.

!! CHANGE !! The race will only take place in Paris, the 50 km of approach are cancelled, and a couple of Champ-Élysées circuit laps are added.

The claimed reason is the lack of availability of firefighters (who in France are paramedics as well), police and civil defence forces, due to the megafires in Southern France, as well as the ending fire in the Fontainebleau Forest near Paris.

What's procy cling?